DURING THE EARLY CINQUECENTO: FLORENCE, BIBLIOTECA DEL CONSERVATORIO
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SECULAR MUSIC AT MILAN
DURING THE EARLY CINQUECENTO:
FLORENCE, BIBLIOTECA DEL CONSERVATORIO,
MS BASEVI 2441
WILLIAM F. PRIZER
Secular music in Milan during the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries is vir
tually a terra incognita. We know that, under Ludovico Sforza and his wife Bea
trice d'Est?, frottolists were present at the Milanese court, although their identities
elude us. We know, too, that many of the Sforza family themselves sang and
played instruments, but we have no reliably Milanese sources that document the
secular musical life of the court in the late fifteenth century.1 The problem is
equally serious for the period immediately after 1500 : since Don Giulio Cattin has
discredited Remo Giazzotto's assertion that MS 55 from the Biblioteca Trivul
ziana is Milanese, we have lost an important document that would cast light on
the secular musical life of Milan during the late fifteenth and early sixteenth
centuries.2
What then was the music of the period in Milan? In the first decades of the
sixteenth century, the principal genre of Italian secular music performed there
* This study was first presented as a paper at an international symposium for the
500th anniversary of the birth of Francesco da Milano, sponsored by the Fondazione
Marco Fodella, the Universit? degli Studi di Milano, and the Comune di Milano.
1 William F. Prizer, "Music at the Court of the Sforza: The Birth and Death of a
Musical Center," M?sica Disciplina 43 (1989): 141-93, is an overview of music in Milan
during this period.
2 Remo Giazotto, "Onde musicali nella c?rreme po?tica di Serafino dall'Aquila; in
his Musurgia nova (Milan: Ricordi, 1959), 3-119; Giulio Cattin, "Nomi di rimatori per la
polifonia profana italiana del secondo Quattrocento," Rivisita Italiana di Musicolog?a 25
(1990): 249. See also Daniela Delcorno Branca, "Da Poliziano a Serafino," in Umanesimo
e Rinascimento a Firenze e Venezia, Miscellanea di studi in onore di Vittore Branca (Flo
rence: Olschki, 1983) 3:435. Together, Cattin and Delcorno Branca show that the poetic
attributions on which Giazotto based the provenance of the manuscript are not supported
by any known documentation and that one manuscript he cites as a source for poems,
Milan, Biblioteca Ambrosiana, MS B 56 sup., is actually a Greek manuscript.
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must surely have been the frottola,3 as it was elsewhere in northern Italy and
beyond, and, thanks to the keen eye of Joshua Rifkin, we do have one frottola
source that is almost certainly Milanese. In 1973 Rifkin published his "Scribal
Concordances for Some Renaissance Manuscripts in Florentine Libraries," in
which he stated that the same scribe who copied Florence, Biblioteca del Conser
vatorio, Baseri 2441 (hereafter FlorC 2441) also copied portions of Milan,
Archivio della Veneranda Fabbrica del Duomo, Librone 3 (MilD 3).4 The purpose
of this study is to examine the contents of HorC 2441 and, on the basis of poli
tical events and a new poetic concordance, to offer a revised date for its copying.
FlorC 2441 is a paper manuscript of seventy-two folios, laid out in oblong
choirbook format and bound in modern brown leather. It is gathered in nine qua
ternions, and each folio measures approximately 14.5 by 20.5 centimeters. On
the first guard sheet at the front of the manuscript is written in a modern hand
"Opera danneggiata dall'Alluvione di Firenze 4 novembre 1966"; litde water
damage is actually seen in the manuscript itself, however. Folio 1 recto bears a title
in two different hands, both later than that of the manuscript itself: "M?sica antica
a4. Cantanti con le parole dell'secolo circa 1460."5 The body of the manuscript is
copied throughout by a single hand with no apparent breaks, the music in brown
ink with a medium nib pen, and the text, with a fine nib. From folio 6 verso to the
end, the text is copied in a slightly yellower ink than the music. The beginning of
each piece is decorated with ornate calligraphic initials in the same dark brown
ink with lighter fine brown lines as the music; the writing is highly professional
and very clear (See Plate 1). FlorC 2441 contains sixty-eight Italian secular works,
of which twenty-four are unica. All are anonymous, although thirty-three can be
3 I use this term as a general one, denoting the Italian secular repertory of northern
Italy in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. I limit it, however, to the kind of
work that originated in the area north of the Apennines, i. e., Bologna, Ferrara, Lom
bardy, and the V?neto. The works which originated in Florence, for example ? the carni
val songs and ballata settings ? are clearly not a part of this repertory. On the problems
with the term frottola as a generic designator of all Italian secular music of the time, see
Nino Pirrotta, "Before the Madrigal," Journal of Musicology 12 (1994): 237-52.
4 Journal of the American Musicological Society 26 (1973): 305-326, esp. 306. For
the sigja used throughout this study, see Appendix I.
5 There is a palimpsest between "dell'" and "sec?lo" that is impossible to decipher.
The date given here, 1460, is certainly much too early for the contents of the manuscript.
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Plate 1. FlorC 2441, fol. 33. Tenor and bassus of anonymous,
El dolor chi me destruge.
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**?****
Millijfe: -iiiiiiii' lij)iiii)iii?1??.WMy?i..
m??m***?m?pw$vw>iSECULAR MUSIC AT MILAN 13
assigned composers through concordant sources.6 These are the major compos
ers of the genre: thirteen works can be attributed to Bartolomeo Tromboncino,
eight or nine to Marchetto Cara,7 four to Filippo de Lurano, and two to Mich?le
Pesenti.
There is no doubt that Rifkin was correa in his scribal assessment of FlorC
2441 (See Plates 1 and 2). The same forms of decorated initials grace both it and
MilD 3, the note shapes are the same, and the custodes and clef forms are identi
cal. A much larger manuscript than FlorC 2441, MilD 3 is in upright choirbook
format and measures 47.8 by 34 centimeters. It contains 217 paper folios, as well
as 4 guardsheets at the front and 2 at the back.8 The manuscript is bound in
modern brown leather, and its fascicle structure is more heterogeneous than
that of FlorC 2441: it is a mixture of quaternions and quinternions, with one
sexternion included, as well. It was copied by several scribes, including, as we
have seen, the scribe of FlorC 2441, who was responsible for folios 37-54, 57v
78, andl25v-47of MilD 3.9
MilD 3 was prepared under the guidance of the maestro di cappella of the
cathedral of Milan, Franchino Gaffurio, and represents the repertory of the
cathedral in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. It contains Masses,
motets, and other liturgical music by the major composers of the day, with spe
cial emphasis on musicians known to have worked in the city: Loyset Comp?re
and Gaffurio himself. Particularly telling for its provenance, too, is the inclusion of
motetti missales, motet substitutions for liturgical items of the Mass. This substi
tution was apparendy not practiced outside Milan and its environs. Also indica
6 Appendix I contains to this article contains an inventory of the contents of FlorC
2441.
7 Se non dormi, donna, ascolta is ascribed to "M[?]. C." in ParBNC 676. Nanie
Bridgman, "Un manuscrit italien du d?but du XVIe si?cle ? la Biblioth?que Nationale
(D?partement de la musique, R?s. Vm.7 676)," Annales Musicologiques 1 (1953): 226, read
the first letter as "L."; after a careful examination of the manuscript itself, it seems to me
that it could just as easily be "M."
8 One of the front guardsheets is parchment and contains a partial table of contents
for the manuscript. A facsimile of the source, Milan, Archivio della Veneranda Fabbrica
delDuomo, Sezione Musicale, Librone 3 (olim 2267), with an Introduction by Howard
M. Brown, appears in the series Renaissance Music in Facsimile, vol. 12c (New York:
Garland, 1987).
9 Rifkin, "Scribal Concordances," 306.
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tive of Milan is the truncation of Masses to follow the Ambrosian rite, which nor
mally included only the Gloria, Credo, and Sanctus in the Ordinary of the Mass.10
Since MilD 3 was copied for the use of the Cathedral in Milan, it seems
probable that FlorC 2441 was also copied in Milan and that the repertory re
presents music current there at the time of its preparation. Although it is possible
that the scribe was living somewhere else when he copied the secular manuscript,
I would maintain, following Rifkin, that HorC 2441 is almost assuredly Milanese,
and not Florentine, as previous scholarship had maintained.11 Indeed, there are
strong traces of Lombard orthography, and none at all of the Florentine.
MilD 3 is perhaps the earlier manuscript. A generally accepted date for its
redaction is "ca. 1500,"12 although Lora Matthews and Paul Merkeley have
proposed 1491 as the correct date, on the basis of a payment in Milan cathedral
archives specifying the copying of a manuscript containing the same number of
gatherings as MilD 3.13 On the other hand, Rifkin discovered that Josquin's Missa
L'homme arm? sexti toni in this source was copied directly from Petrucci's Misse
Josquin, published on 27 September 1502. The manuscript must therefore have
been copied after this date, at least in part. In fact, the copyist of this Mass was the
same as the scribe of FlorC 2441.14 We can infer, therefore, that this scribe was
active in Milan at some point after 1502.
10 For example, Josquin's Missa L'homme arm? sexti toni and his Missa Hercules
Dux Ferrariae include only the three central movements in Librone 3, though they contain
all five movements of the Ordinary in other sources.
11 See, for example, Knud Jeppesen, La Frottola 2: Zur Bibliographie der hand
schriftlichen musikalischen ?berlieferung des weltlichen italienischen Lieds um 1500
(Copenhagen: Wilhelm Hansen, 1969): 66. Jeppesen does remark, however, that the
manuscript shows "little affinity to Tuscan music culture" (ibid., 50).
12 Charles Hamm and Herbert Kellman, Census-Catalogue of Manuscript Sources
of Polyphonic Music, 1400-1550, 5 vols. (Renaissance Manuscript Studies 1; Neuhausen
Stuttgart: H?nssler-Verlag, 1979-88), 2: 152-53.
13 Lora Matthews and Paul Merkley, "Gaffurius, Leonardo, and Ludovico:
Patronage and Clientage in Milanese Music during the Reign of II Moro," paper read at the
Fifty-eighth Annual Meeting of the American Musicological Society, Pittsburgh, 1992.
14 MilD 3, fols. 135v-141. That Josquin's mass was copied from the Petrucci book
was communicated to me by Joshua Rrfkin, whom I thank for reading a draft of this article
and making several helpful suggestions. Rifkin's findings are documented in David
Fallows, "Josquin and Milan," Plainsong and Medieval Music 5 (1996): 75, note 19.
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The date normally assigned to HorC 2441, "the beginning of the sixteenth
century," is certainly a logical one.15 Like other secular manuscripts of the time, it
is in oblong rather than upright format, and, like other frottola manuscripts of the
first decade of the Cinquecento, it is dominated by the barzelletta: fifty-eight of
its sixty-eight pieces are barzellette or barzelletta-like poems.16 Earlier manus
cripts are most often in upright format and feature predominandy strambotto
settings; HorC 2441 contains only four of these. Sources of the second decade of
the sixteenth century, on the other hand, tend more often to include settings of
more "literary" text-forms like the ballata and the canzone. These are entirely
lacking in 2441 : in addition to the barzellette and strambotti already mentioned, it
contains only five ode and one sonnet. Although the latter is a more "literary"
form than the barzelletta, it is found with a fair degree of frequency in sources of
the first decade of the sixteenth-century.
The pattern of musical concordances with HorC 2441 also supports a date
in the first years of the Cinquecento. There are concordances with the central
frottola manuscripts of the same time including ParBNC 676, copied in Mantua
in 1502;17 LonBLE 3051/WashLC M6, copied in Rome in perhaps 1501;18 and
15 Jeppesen, La Frottola 2:50. The Census-Catalogue of Manuscript Sources of
Polyphonic Music, 1400-1550, vol. 1 (Neuhausen-Stuttgart: H?nssler-Verlag, 1979), 235,
takes its date from Jeppesen.
16 Nino Pirrotta recendy attempted to draw a distinction between the barzelletta
and the frottola in its narrowest sense; he sees the two poems as similar in structure but
defines the former as a poem of which only the ripresa and refrain of the poem are set to
music; the latter has a separate setting for the stanza. Pirrotta, "Before the Madrigal," 237
39. In this study, I shall use "barzelletta" as a term for all poems that have the requisite three
parts: four-line ripresa, six- or eight-line stanza, and refrain. Variations of this pattern are
referred to as "barzelletta variants."
17 Prizer, "Paris, Biblioth?que Nationale, R?s. Vm7 676 and Music at Mantua," in
Lorenzo Bianconi et al (eds.), Atti delXIV Congresso della Societ? Internazionale di Musi
colog?a: Transmissione e recezione delle forme di cultura musicale, 2 (Turin: EDT, 1990),
235-39.
18 Prizer, "Secular Music in Florence and Rome during the Medici Expulsion, 1494 -
1512," paper read at the Sixty-first Annual Meeting of the American Musicological
Society, New York, 1995. Working independendy, Joshua Rifkin and Martin Staehelin
showed LonBLE 3051 and WashLC M6 to be parts of the same manuscript. Rifkin,
"A 'New' Renaissance Manuscript," paper read at the Thirty-seventh Annual Meeting of
the American Musicological Society, Chapel Hill, 1971; and Staehelin, "Eine Florentiner
Musik-Handschrift aus der Zeit um 1500.," Schweizer Beitr?ge zur Musikwissenschaft,
ser. 3, 1 (1972): 55-81.
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BolC Q18, copied in Bologna, probably between 1502 and 1505.19 There are also
concordances with the first nine books of frottole published by Petrucci in the
years 1504 to 1509, and, importandy, there are no pieces that occur for the first
time in any print issued after 1509. Furthermore, the majority of concordances
cluster in Petrucci's earlier books: there are sixteen concordances with the PeF I of
1504 and nine with the PeF HI of 1505, but only three each with the PeF Vu and
PeF EX, published respectively in 1507 and 1509. In short, the manuscript gives
every indication of having been copied in the period shortly after 1500.
I will return to the question of dating after an examination of the repertory of
HorC 2441.
One work in the manuscript, although it is found in a large number of con
cordant sources, seems highly characteristic of Milan. This is In te, Domine, spe
ravi (No. 54), a macaronic barzelletta ascribed in PeF I to "Josquin D'Ascanio,"
that is to "Josquin, servant of Ascanio [Sforza]." Since the recent discovery of
Merkeley and Matthews that it was indeed Josquin des Prez and not another
Josquin in Ascanio's services in the 1480s, we can now reaffirm that the work is
definitely by des Prez.20 In te, Domine, speravi is thus found in three geographi
cally important sources for Josquin's life, of which the earliest is LonBLE 3051,
which was copied in Rome in about 1501. The second concordance is ParBNC
676, copied in Mantua in 1502.21 Josquin had been in Mantua in 1498 and 1499, on
his way to Rome. Finally In te, Domine is in our Milanese source, as well, HorC
2441. Rifkin believes that HorC 2441 transmits the version of the work closest
to that of the composer himself and that LonBLE 3051 is almost equally author
itative.22
19 Susan Forscher Weiss, "Bologna Q 18: Some Reflections on Content and Con
text," Journal of the American Musicological Society 41 (1988): 63-101, especially 93.
20 Matthews and Merkley, "Josquin Desprez in Milan: Singer, Composer, Envoy,
and 'Clericus Capelle,'" paper read at the Sixty-third Annual Meeting of the American
Musicological Society, Phoenix, 1997. On Josquin and Ascanio, the main source is
Edward E. Lowinsky, "Ascanio Sforza's Life: A Key to Josquin's Biography and an Aid to
the Chronology of his Works," in Lowinsky and Bonnie J. Blackburn, eds., Josquin des
Prez. Proceedings of the International Josquin Festival-Conference (London: Oxford
University Press, 1976), 31-75.
21 See above for the literature dating these sources.
22 Rifkin, "A Singer Named Josquin and Josquin D'Ascanio: Some Problems in the
Biography of Josquin des Prez," unpublished paper. Rifkin believes that ParBNC 676 is
further removed from the central tradition.
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Another work that deserves particular comment is the anonymous Fami,
donna, el mio dovere (No. 68). The text of this barzelletta is by Bartolomeo
Cavassico (ca. 1480-1555), who lived in Belluno, a town in the V?neto at the base
of the Dolomites, a hundred kilometers north of Venice.23 Fami, donna is one of a
small group of dialogues in the frottola repertory, and it is a particularly complex
one. Its text, a conversation between a young man ("Zovene") and a young
woman ("Donna"), reads as follows24:
[Zovene] Fami, donna, el mio dovere, Give me, lady, my due,
che'l tardar mi da gran doglia. For your delay saddens me gready.
[Donna] Pi? di te n'? magior voglia, I want it more than you,
resto sol per non potere. I stay [away] only because I must.
[Zovene] Fami, donna, el mio dovere, Give me, lady, my due,
che'l tardar mi da gran doglia. For your delay saddens me gready.
Io so ben che farlo poi, I know well that you can do it,
ma ti piace el mio stentare. But my misery pleases you.
[Donna] [S'io potesse, ai d?sir toi] Your desires, if I could,
seria presto a contentare. I would quickly fulfill.
[Zovene] Dime doncha ci? ch'? a fare. Tell me, then what I should do.
[Donna] Finch? possa sta' a vedere. As long as you can, be patient.
[Fami, donna_] [Give me, lady_]
23 See Vittorio Cian, Le rime di Bartolomeo Cavassico, notaio bellunese d?lia prima
meta del sec?lo XVI, 2 vols. (Scelta di curiosit? letterarie in?dite o rare, 246-47; Bologna:
Romangnoli, 1893-94; reprint Bologna: Forni, 1969); and C. Mutini, "Bartolomeo
Cavassico," Dizionario biogr?fico degli italiani 23 (Rome: Istituto d?lia Enciclopedia Ita
liana, 1979): 30-32. Cattin, "Nomi di rimatori,,, 251, first noted this textual concordance
in Cian's edition.
24 The character designations of "Zovene" and "Donna" are taken from Belluno,
Biblioteca Civica, MS 396, an autograph manuscript of Cavassico's poetry; they are not
present in FlorC 2441. Portions of the text in brackets are also taken from MS 396. There
are several small differences between the poem as transmitted in the Belluno MS and HorC
2441. The last stanza differs considerably, however. In the text, I adopt the reading from
the musical source. In Cavassico's autograph, the last stanza reads as follows: "Faro tuto el
poder mio, / per cavarti fuor di stento. / Io sto sempre cum desio / che mi faci hormai con
tento. / Non dir pi?, che hormai t'? intento. / Ors?, adonca, Dio el voglia." On the Belluno
manuscript, see below.
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[Donna] Il tuo tanto lamentarte Your great lamenting
Palma afflicta mi tormenta. Torments my anguished spirit.
[Zovene] S'io non posso el cor piegarte, If I cannot bend your heart,
non vo' tu ch'io mi lamenta? Do you not want me to lament?
[Donna] Non dir pi?, io son contenta. Say no more, I am content.
[Zovene] Ors?, fa' che'l fructo acoglia. Come then, take action.
[Donna] Pi? di te n'? magior voglia, I want it more than you,
resta sol per non potere. I stay [away] only because I must.
[Zovene] E' possibil che alchun modo Is it not possible that in some way
tu non tro vi a contentarme? you can content me?
[Donna] Sapi, amor, ch'io [mi] rodoKnow, love, that I am consumed
che non so techo trovarme. Because I cannot be with you.
[Zovene] Quando lieto voria farme? When will you make me happy?
[Donna] Quando al ciel sar? a piacere.
When it pleases heaven.
[Zovene] Fami, donna ... Give me, lady ...
[Donna] Faro tuto el poter mio I will do all in my power
per cavarte fuor di stento. To remove your misery.
[Zovene] Al fin rechi el mio disio, In the end, you'll give in to me
ma di te non mi lamento. And so I will not lament
[Donna] Non dir pi? ch'arai tuo Say no more, you'll have your
intento. wish.
[Zovene] Ors?, andofca], Amor lo voglia Come, then, love would want it.
[Donna] Pi? di te_ I want it more than you_
This poem is in the classic barzelletta form, dividing into three parts: a ripresa of
four lines, rhyming "abba"; a stanza of six lines rhyming "cdcdda" that is in turn
divided into two parts, piedi ("cdcd") and volta ("da"); and a refrain which equals
the first half of the ripresa. All lines are octosyllabic.25 In this instance, however,
25 The barzelletta may also have a stanza of eight lines, rhyming "cdcddeea." On the
barzelletta and other text forms of the frottola, see Prizer, Courtly Pastimes: The Frottole
ofMarchetto Cara (Ann Arbor: UMI, 1980): 63-104, and Idem, "Performance Practices
in the Frottola," Early Music 3 (1975): 227-35.
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the ripresa divides into two distichs, the first spoken by the "Zovene," which
rhymes "ab," and the second, by the "Donna," which rhymes "ba." Cavassico
has used the two distichs as separate refrains, so that they alternate between the
two speakers. Accordingly, each stanza followed by the male's refrain includes a
volta ending in the standard "a" rhyme, but each stanza followed by the female's
refrain includes a volta ending in a less standard "b" rhyme; these serve to link the
volta to the refrain through an interlocking rhyme. To accommodate this struc
ture, the anonymous composer has done something that is, as far as I know, uni
que in the frottola repertory: he (or she) has written two separate musical settings
for the stanzas of the poem, one to be used for stanzas ending with an "a" rhyme,
and another for those ending with a "b" rhyme. This structure can be represented
as follows:26
Ripresa Stanza 1 Refrain 1 Stanza 2 Refrain 2
abba cdcdda ab efeffb b a
1234 343412 12 341256 34
ZD ZDZDZ DZDZD
In other respects, however, F
Example 1). As Claudio Gallico
repertory divide into two general types.27 The first of these is the setting in which
the entire text is consigned to the superius voice; here the composer may or may
not make an attempt to differentiate the individual speakers musically. The
second type is that which is more like the villotta in texture: it divides the text
among the various voices so that a more realistic dialogue results. Among the
former type are two by Bartolomeo Tromboncino: Aqua, aqua, aiuto al foco
between an "Amante" and "Amor," and Amor. Che vuoi? between a "Donna"
26 Here and throughout this study numerals represent musical clauses and letters
represent poetic lines. Italicized letters represent repeated text. In this example, "D" repre
sents the verses sung by the "Donna," and, "Z," those sung by the "Zovene."
27 Claudio Gallico, "Un dialogo d'Amore' di Niccol? da Correggio musicato da
Bartolomeo Tromboncino," Studien zur Musikwissenschaft 25 (1962): 205-213, esp. 209.
I have modified Gallico's definitions slighdy.
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and "Amor."28 Examples of the latter type, the true dialogue, are more frequent
in the later frottola repertory, but are also found in ParBNC 676, Morte! Che
voy? Te bramo29 and in PeF XI of 1514, Antonio Stringari's Don, don, alfoco, al
foco.'0
Fami, donna, el mio dovere is an example of the first type, and I see in it no
attempt to differentiate the speakers through musical means. The entire text is
underlaid to the uppermost voice, and the "Donna" and the "Zovene" share
melodic clauses: both sing, for example, clauses three and four. It could, however,
have been performed by two singers in the same range, whose timbres alone
would have had to provide sufficient contrast. It is also possible that it could have
been sung by a soprano and a tenor, whose ranges are roughly an octave apart,
though neither of these alternatives is specified in any way in HorC 2441.
Alhough these two works are of particular interest, the unica of FlorC 2441
are of even greater import, since these may well represent music composed in
Milan and intended for the entertainments that took place there. Twenty-four
pieces are unica, or a full 35 ?/o of the contents of the manuscript. Nineteen are
barzellette or barzelletta-like poems; there are also two strambotti, two ode and a
single sonnet among the unica. The last of these, Pensieri infuocho (No. 37) bears
the rubric "soneti" and should be added to the small group of pieces that are
intended as schematic settings for all sonnet texts.
The great majority of the unica have the rhyme scheme of the barzelletta,
almost 71 ?/o. These are somewhat more complex than the normal barzelletta set
tings: twelve of the seventeen works contain new music for the stanza, rather than
having only enough music for the ripresa and refrain. This stands in strong con
trast to the general frottola repertory, in which the majority of barzellette simply
repeat the music of the ripresa for the stanza. In the unique barzellette, too, there
is a great elasticity in the treatment of the barzelletta form. Many of the works
have irregular refrains, drawn from the second half of the ripresa rather than
28 The former is found in PeF DC, fol. 40v and in PeB I, fol. 24. Modern edition in
Gallico, "Un 'Dialogo d'Amore,'" 210-12. The latter is included in AntF I, fols. 24v-25.
Modern edition in Alfred Einstein, "Andrea Antico's Canzoni nove of 1510," The Musical
Quarterly 37 (1957): 337-38.
29 ParBNC 676, 52v-53. Modern edition in Fausto Torrefranca, 77 segreto del
Quattrocento (Milan: Hoepli, 1939), 497-98.
30 PeF XI, 40v-41, ascribed to "Afntonius] P[atavus]."
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the first; others have truncated stanzas of only four lines, rhyming often "bbba"
or "ca." Several are written in septisyllabic lines, rather than the expected octosyl
labic ones. The following examples present a representative sampling of diversity
in barzelletta form found in the manuscript.
Amor sforza ir straporta (No. 60) has a two-line refrain derived from the
second half of the ripresa, rather than the first half, which is more typical; the first
line of the refrain, moreover, is not found at all in the ripresa:
Amor sforza ira straporta [Ripresa]
l'inflamata lingua mia
a dir mal de geloxia
et ognun che in se la porta.
Mora, mora geloxia [Refrain]
et ognun ehe in se la porta.
Questa nasce occultamente [Stanza]
in el cor, como se dice,
del pensier a la semente
de l'aspecto a la radice.
Ay meschini et infelice,
quello che ha quest'herba ria.
Mora, mora geloxia ?31 [Refrain]
Ognora pi? mipiace (No. 38) has a mono-rhymed ripresa of only two lines,
expanded to four through the repetition of the first distich. Furthermore, it
features a truncated stanza, rhyming "bbba," and is written in septisyllabic lines:
Ognora pi? mi piace [Ripresa]
la mia amorosa face;
ognora pi? mi piace
la mia amorosa face.
31 Two additional stanzas follow.
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E ben che chi me accora, [Stanza]
i' servo pur ognora
el duol chi me divora
me ne agrava e spiace.
Ognora pi?_32 [Refrain]
A che tanto tentarmi (No. 40) has a ripresa of three lines, again featuring a
single rhyme; the stanza, however, is composed of four lines, rhyming "bbba." It
too has a septisyllabic line structure:
A che tanto stentarmi, [Ripresa]
a che tanto provarmi,
a che tanto stentarmi.
Non vedi c'ognora ardo [Stanza]
dal tuo lucente sguardo,
ferito con quel dardo
che passa ogni dura armi.
A che tanto_33
Chi non sa, vada ad imparare (No. 43) is even further removed from the
standard barzelletta form: it consists of a series of four-line strophes, in which the
first line of each strophe is the same as the first line of the ripresa. It is basically
octosyllabic, although the first line is a hypermeter and should probably be read
as Chi non sa, vada a imparare, rather than ad imparare.
Chi non sa, vada ad imparare Chi non sa, vada ad imparare
che dura cosa ? amor servir?. quando sia grave dolore
io el so che per martire ad amar chi non ha amore
mai non cesso la lacrimare. se non sa ben simulare.
32 Six additional stanzas follow.
33 Six additional stanzas follow.
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Chi non sa, vada ad imparare Chi non sa, vada ad imparare
gubernarsi a tempo e luocho ben conduce uno suo disegno
a me tocha che nel focho se non vol com'io per segno
son causato sempre a stare. a la fin mal capitare.
This is an extraordinary variety in formal structures. They wander from
pieces relatively close to the "classical" form of the barzelletta to ones that are
barely recognizable as variants of the standard scheme. This variety is not unique
to FlorC 2441, but it is particularly prevalent there. It should remind us that the
barzelletta began as a popular idiom and the poets and composers treated is as
merely a vehicle for their thoughts, rather than as a form in which to force them.
Two further unica must be mentioned, since they are unique songs of a
more popular type. L 'arte nostra ? macinare (No. 5) is a typical barzelletta with a
four-line ripresa and a six-line stanza. Its content reveals it as a carnival song, a
mascherata sung by a group of boys or men in costume. It is a song of millers,
which, although describing on the surface their professional skills, is actually an
offer of sexual favors to women:
L'arte nostra ? macinare Our job is grinding
e servir? a tuta gente And serving everyone
con sincera e pura mente, With a sincere and pure mind
pur ch'abiam da lavorare. Even though it makes us work.
Venite voi, donne belle, Come, lovely ladies,
a macinare a lo molino, To grind at the mill,
o mandate le don?ele, Or send the young maidens,
a chi non pesa lo camino, For whom the way is easier,
che, da sera o da matino,34 Because in the evening or in the morning,
le vedremo de spazare.35 We will be sure to clean them out.
L'arte nostra ? Our job ?
34 This and previous line are reversed in Charles S. Singleton, Canti carnascialeschi
del Rinascimento (Ban: Laterza, 1936), 102. Though this makes slightly better sense, the
composer clearly intended the order found in the MS: the first line contains a hypermeter
of nine syllables and the second phrase, where the line would fall in Singleton's emenda
tion, contains only the requisite eight notes.
35 Four additional stanzas follow; they are published in Singleton, Canti carnascia
leschi, 102.
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This work, for only three voices, is particularly complex mensurally, alter
nating between major and minor prolation in tempus imperfectum (See Appen
dix H, Example 2). Furthermore the sections in major prolation feature loose
canons between the Cantus and Tenor. It thus is more complex than the normal
Florentine carnival song, which most frequendy moves to a triple mensuration
only in the last lines of the stanza, the volta, and then returns to the basic duple
mensuration for the refrain. Neither is canonic writing found often in the Floren
tine repertory. L 'arte nostra ? macinare should be added to the small repertory of
north-Italian canti carnascialeschi.36
The second popular unicum is De le done quai ? Var?e (No. 55). It, too, bears
a certain resemblance to the carnival song, although it has a text that is less normal
for one. It is, in Ghisi's words, "completely obscene";37 it purports to be about
women's ability at hunting.
De le done qual'? Parte? What is women's skill?
Dice ognun che l'? el filare; Everyone says that it is spinning [cloth];
non ? ver', ch? l'? el cazare38 That's not true, for it is hunting
nocte e di per consumarte. Night and day in order to consume you.
36 Modern edition in Federico Ghisi, / Canti camascialeschi nellefonti musicali del
XVe XVI sec?lo (Horence: Olschki 1937; reprint Bologna: AMIS, 1970), 112-13 and
Joseph J. Gallucci, "Festival Music in Florence, ca. 1480-ca. 1520: Canti camascialeschi,
trionfi, and Related Forms" (Ph.D. diss., Harvard University, 1966) 2:142- 44. On north
Italian carnival songs, see also Prizer, aFacciamo pure noi camevale: Non-Florentine Car
nival Songs of the Late Fifteenth and Early Sixteenth Centuries," in Irene Aim, Aly
son McLamore, and Colleen Reardon, eds., M?sica Franca: Essays in Honor of Frank
A. D'Accone (Stuyvesant, NY: Pendragon Press, 1996), 173-211. L'arte nostra is not
included there.
37 Ghisi, I Canti camascialeschi, 54.
38 There is an obvious play on words here, between "cazare" (a normal Lombard
spelling of the standard Italian "cacciare"), and "cazzo," the penis. Moreover, "cacciare"
means not only "to hunt," but also "to drive" and "to "thrust in or out." Sir John Florio,
Queen Anna's New World of Words (London: Bradwood, 1611; reprint Menston,
England: Scolar Press, 1968), 73, s. v. "cacciare." There are other puns, here as well:
"cavalcare," for example, means not only "to ride a horse," but also "to straddle." Ibid.,
p. 90.
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Suso, suso a cavalcare, Up, up, to horse,
sona el corno, a caza, a caza! Sound the horn, to the hunt, to the hunt!
Sempre mai vorian cazare All they want to do is hunt
per l'osutto e per la guaza. For the bone and for the dew.
Sequitando per la traza Following by its spoor
l'animal che pi? li grada, The animal that pleases them most,
dentro e for a per la strada, In and out and on the path,
may vorebon far altra arte. They would prefer to do nothing else.
Ogni dona in su la caza! Every woman to the hunt!
Lor' s'ingrassano e tu te struge. They grow fat and you are ruined.
Pover homo, fuge, fuge, Flee, pathetic man, flee
che non fa per te quest'arte. So that they don't do this to you.
A le done, se tu vedi, For women, you see,
nel cazar devantan paze; Become wild during the hunt.
milli lazi, ingegni e rete A thousand traps, tricks, and snares
an' le done in su le caze. Have the woman for their hunting.
The text here, though similar to a mascherata, lacks the characteristic first-person
plural of the masked singers, and I myself am tempted to classify De le done as a
theater song, intended for the intermedio of a Milanese comedy.39 The text form
is also problematic. Through the "ripresa" and the first "stanza," it would seem to
be a normal barzelletta, featuring an eightline stanza rhyming "cdcddeea." The
second "stanza," however, departs from this scheme, rhyming "dffaghgh." The
musical structure is also unusual for a barzelletta. The anonymous composer has
simply set the ripresa as a quatrain, and the scribe has nowhere given a cue for a
refrain. In short, the composer seems to have viewed the poem as simply a series
of quatrains with no internal symmetries (See Appendix II, Example 3). The
musical style of the work is simpler than that of Uarte nostra: though for four
voices instead of three, it is almost completely homorhythmic throughout.
39 Gallucci, "Festival Music in Florence" 1:65 also remarks on the unusual nature of
the text of De le done. He includes a modern edition of the work in ibid., 2: 301-302.
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Armed with a more detailed knowledge of the contents of FlorC 2441, we
can now return to the question of its date. Although its redaction may have been
begun during the early years of the sixteenth century, the manuscript was not
finished until some point after 1510. In fact, it is doubtful that the source was
copied before 1512 or 1513. The key here is the last work in the manuscript,
Fami, donna, el mio dovere, already discussed. Except for his student days at
Padua and possibly Perugia, Bartolomeo Cavassico, the author of the text, lived
his entire life in and around Belluno in the northern V?neto.40 An important local
notary, Cavassico was also an amateur poet in the vernacular, and copied his
poems in mostly chronological order in a single manuscript, now found in Bel
luno, Biblioteca C?vica, MS 396 (olim MS A).41 The great majority of the poems
in this source can be dated, thanks to the author's habit of including the dates of
composition for many of them. He began the manuscript in September 1508.42
The last date included is 1530, although the majority of the poems were compos
ed in the period between 1508 and 1512.43
Fami, donna, el mio dovere is found on folio 144r-v of the Belluno manus
cript, where it carries the rubric "Interlocutores juvenis et femina." There, it is
amid a cluster of verses all stemming from 1510. A poem slightly before it, Dive
sirochie, ormiprestati agiunto (folio 139r-v), bears the rubric "Lamentado Urbis
Belluni. 1510" and is a threnody on the fall of Belluno to Emperor Maximillian I
Cian, Le rime 1 : XIX.
41 Cian, Le rime 2 is a partial modern edition of this manuscript. Cian edits roughly
half the poems included in the manuscript itself. As far as I am able to tell, Cavassico
copied no poems by others into his book.
42 MS 396, fol. 2r. "Iste liber inchoatus fuit di [number blank] septembris 1508. Mei
Barholomei Cavasicci notarii quondam ser Troyli." There are two systems of foliation in
the manuscript, an original, not always correct one in ink, and a modern, pencil one. In all
instances, I adopt the modern foliation.
43 See Cian, Le rime 1 : XLIII. "Le moke didascalie che sono sparse nel c?dice ci
permettono di stabilire con sicurezza la cronolog?a di queste composizioni; di affermare
cio? che tali poesi appartengono ad un periodo che corre fra il 1508, la prima data che ci
apparisce, e il 1530, ch? ? l'ultima. Ma le pi? furono composte dal 1508 al 1512, dopo il
quale anno esse vanno diradandosi, finch? vengono a mancare del tutto." The last poem in
the manuscript, Quanto strani n 'hei de ti, fols. 242 - 44v, bears the rubric "Die 25 Junii 1530
in Villa de Cirvoio."
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on 3 July of this year.44 After Fami, donna and an undated oda,45 there is a break of
two blank folios (from 145v through 146v). The first poem after the break is Per
dimostra quanto te sia tenuto, a sonnet headed "Incipit gratiarum actio confecta
clarissimo Domino Aluysio Mucinicho Provisori Generali pro salvatione civitatis
Belluni. Die 15 septembris 1510, de nocte post cenam."46
Although not dated in Cavassico's manuscript, Fami, donna, el mio dovere
must therefore have been composed between July and mid-September 1510. In
fact, this is a logical time for its composition. Fami, donna is a dialogue, as we have
seen, but it is a highly unusual one. Unlike other dialogues in the frottola reper
tory, this poem is neither about a suffering lover and Amor, nor is it a popular text
with an earthy and sexually explicit dialogue. Instead, its text depicts a youth and
a young woman who wish to be together, though the woman is absent. I would
maintain that this dialogue, like other works in Cavassico's manuscript, is auto
biographical and refers to his fianc?e Margherita Persicini, for whom he compos
ed a large portion of his poetry and whom he eventually married in July 1511.47
Indeed, another poem from the same summer is specifically addressed to
Margherita, exhorting her to leave her villa at Cirvoi, a village some eight kilome
ters from Belluno, and return to the city, where the poet awaits her impatiently.48
This poem, too, must stem from early July, since several folios later another poem
bears the rubric "1510. Die Mercurii tertio Julii. Lamentado urbis feltrensis."49
Viewed in this light, Fami, donna is a sequel to A lafe and is addressed to Bartolo
meo's fianc?e Margherita, who is spending the summer in a villa and who wishes
to return to Belluno as much as Bartolomeo wishes to see her.
44 Cian, Le rime 1 : CI.
45 E le pur vignu el temp, fol. 145; not published in Cian, Le rime.
46 MS 396, fol. 147.
47 Cian, Le rime 1: XXXI-XXXII. Cian does not associate Fami, donna with
Persicini.
48 MS 396, fol. 94-95v. A lafe'des l'? temp, an oda in dialect, asks her to stay no
longer "a Cirvoi" and again not to remain "in villa." She is specifically referred to here as
"Margarita" and "Parsigina."
49 MS 396, fol. 130. The poem, Surgite, voipietosi umani spirti, is a lament for the fall
of Feltre, a town near Belluno, to Maximillian on 1 July 1510.
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That Fami, donna was written in the summer of 1510 is also supported by
its script and ink color: neither of these is found later in the Belluno manuscript,
and are in fact rare in the source. They are present, however, in two poems just
before it, Non voler domenticharti to "Albam, dilectam comatrem", on folios 135
to 137, and Se me voi abandonare to "Catherinam, Bartolomei Cavasicci Ami
cam," on folios 141 to 143.50
According to Vittorio Cian, none of Cavassico's poetry appeared in print,
and it circulated little.511 cannot answer with any certainty how Fami, donna, el
mio dovere came to be set to music or to find its way out of Belluno. It is possible
to make a suggestion, however. Fami, donna is found elsewhere only in ParBNC
27, the Thibault Lute Book.52 This manuscript was copied by a professional lute
nist in the V?neto for his own use. Unlike HorC 2441, it would appear to have
been copied over a period of time with different ink colors and different nibs.
Fami, donna is one of the last works in the Thibault Lute Book, followed only by
intabulations of a Benedictus by Heinrich Isaac and of an Ave Maria by Josquin
des Prez.53 The book cannot, therefore, have been completed before 1510, though
it must have been copied considerably closer to Belluno than HorC 2441. It
would seem a viable hypothesis, then, that the lutenist himself (or herself) was a
means of transmission of Fami, donna which he found in Belluno or elsewhere in
the vicinity and intabulated for his own use. If he had traveled at all, the work
could have gradually become known outside the region and eventually in Milan.
I am all too aware that Fami, donna is the last work in HorC 2441 and that it
is entirely possible that the manuscript was begun earlier and was merely com
Neither is published in Cian, Le rime.
51 Cian, Le rime 1 : XL.
52 Fol. 54v, Tenor and Basses only. There is a problematic facsimile of the Thibault
Lute Book, Tablature de luth Italienne. Cent dix pi?ces d'oeuvres vocals pour luth seul et
accompagnement pour luth (Geneva: Minkoff, 1981). On this MS, see Genevi?ve
Thibault, "Un manuscrit italien pour luth des premi?res ann?es du XVIe si?cle," in Le luth
et sa musique (Paris: CNRS, 1958), 43-76; Lewis Jones, "The Thibault Lute Manuscript:
An Introduction," Journal of the Lute Society 22 (1982): 69-87 and 23 (1983): 21-5;
Prizer, "The Frottola and the Unwritten Tradition," Studi musicali 15 (1986): 3-37. For
the problems with the facsimile, see ibid., p. 28, note 88.
53 Found on, respectively, fol. 55 and 55v.
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pleted after 1510 with the addition of the setting of Cavassico's dialogue. If this
were the case, however, there should be some trace of stages in the MS ? different
ink colors, different nibs, or even slightly different decorated initials. In Cavassi
co's poetry book, for example, the ink color and nib change fairly frequendy and
even the poet's writing style alters here and there; these differences are also found
in the Thibault Lute Book. This, however, is not true of FlorC 2441: after the
already mentioned change at folio 6v in ink color for the texts, the manuscript
shows no trace of any variations at all and appears to have been copied in one
steady process. Nor do concordances with earlier sources fall necessarily near the
beginning of the MS. The first two works, Quai ? 7 cor and Scope, lingua have con
cordances with PeF IX (1509) and PeF V??I (1507), respectively. In te, domine,
speravi, which surely must have been composed and known in Milan by 1500,
does riot fall in FlorC 2441 until folio 56v. And Chi mi dar? pi? pace, with a con
cordance with PeF I (1504), is the penultimate work in the manuscript. In short
there is no trace, scribal or r?pertoriai, that HorC 2441 was compiled in distinct
stages stretching over a number of years. If, instead, it was put together in a more
or less single process during a limited period as scribal evidence suggests, then it
cannot have been copied before 1510, the date of composition of Fami, donna.
Even this year seems too early, however, and I would suggest that a more prob
able time for its redaction would be at least a year or two later.
Furthermore, the political climate in Milan in the first decade of the six
teenth century makes this period an unlikely candidate for the collection of a
manuscript of secular music, for the city was in virtually constant tumult, both
for political reasons and because a plague raged through the city for two years.54
The political problems are well known. Ludovico Sforza had left the city in
September 1499 to travel to the imperial court and the French occupied the city.
Ludovico and his brother Ascanio returned, though they were forced to flee
again. Both were captured in April 1500, the duke by the French, and Ascanio by
the Venetians. Ascanio died in 1505 and Ludovico died in a French prison in 1508.
Thus, for the entire first decade of the century, Milan was virtually a province of
the French crown. Not until 1512 did the city revert to Italian control, under
54 On this period of Milanese history, see Gian Piero Bognetti, "La citta sotto i
francesi," in Storia di Milano 8 (Milan: Fondazione Treccani degli Alfieri, 1957): 1-80;
Gino Franceschini, "Le dominazioni francesi e le restaurazioni sforzesche," ibid., 81-333,
esp. 81-184; and Caterina Santoro, Gli Sforza (V?rese: dall'Oglio, 1968), 325-69.
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Lodovico's son Massimiliano (1493-1530), who had been living at the imperial
court. Since the manuscript cannot have been finished before late 1510,1 would
maintain that the most likely occasion for its copying was in fact on the return of
Massimiliano.
The young duke, with a party of five hundred, arrived in Mantua from
Austria on 10 November 1512, at the court ruled by his uncle and aunt, the M?r
chese Francesco II Gonzaga and his wife the Marchesa Isabella d'Est?. On 16
November he took possession of his town of Cremona, and on 29 December he
entered Milan itself. Here he quickly showed himself unprepared to govern, but
all too ready for amusement.
Already in Mantua, he had received a taste of the celebrations and feste
possible at an Italian court.55 He was met outside the town walls by the whole
court and the nobility of Mantua, and was housed in the Castello in Francesco
Gonzaga's own rooms. On 11 November he was taken to a solemn Mass and Te
Deum in the Cathedral of San Pietro sung by the marchese's new court choir.
Later he was taken to see the famous Gonzaga horses and Francesco's new palace
of San Sebastiano. That evening there was a dance in the Castello.56 Francesco had
announced a period of feste and had pronounced an edict that everyone might go
through the streets in maschera as though it were carnival time.57 On 12 Novem
ber Massimiliano himself went about Mantua in maschera, and that evening went
to a banquet and a masked ball in the sala grande of Palazzo San Sebastiano.
While there he was also taken on a hunt for a wild boar.58
The letter describing the banquet and ball at San Sebastiano, from the Ferra
rese courtier Count Lorenzo Strozzi (d. 1516) to the young Federico Gonzaga in
Rome, gives a clear view of the kind of court entertainment that the young Massi
miliano found so attractive. All the ladies and gentlemen of the Mantuan and
55 Massimiliano's visit to Mantua and the first period of his residency in Milan are
discussed and documented in Alessandro Luzio, "Isabella d'Est? di fronte a Giulio II negli
ultimi tre anni del suo pontificato," Archivio storico lombardo, anno 39 (1912): 137-44
and 393-445.
56 Letter of Amico della Torre to Federico Gonzaga in Rome, 11 November 1512.
Archivio di Stato di Mantova, Archivio Gonzaga (hereafter ASMN-G), busta 2845.
57 Letter of Amico della Torre to Federico Gonzaga in Rome, 13 November 1512.
ASMN-G, busta 2845.
Letter of 25 November 1512. ASMN-G, busta 2485.
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Sforza courts were present, as were Isabella, Francesco, and Cardinal Ippolito I
d'Est?. The guests were welcomed by bagpipes ("pive"), and dancing began.
During dinner Massimiliano was entertained by Nanino, one of the Gonzaga
dwarves, who dressed first as a bishop and then as a Venetian. After dinner danc
ing continued, to the sound of the shawms ("piffari"), and another dwarf, Viscon
tino, did tricks with swords. At about midnight Massimiliano took off his mask
and everyone returned to their lodgings.
In addition to the masked ball and the magnificence of the occasion, it is
worthy of note that the festa contained two diverse kinds of music, going on
in two different rooms. The main hall featured the music of the pifferi, while in a
smaller retiring room ("camera" as opposed to the "sala" of the dance itself)
other musicians performed different kinds of presumably more intimate
music ("fecerno var?ate musiche") for the enjoyment of the guests.59 Among the
musicians for the latter must have been Marchetto Cara and his tenorista Roberto
d'Avanzini, since Massimiliano undoubtedly heard them perform in Mantua.
Several days later, on 18 November, Massimiliano had his chancellor
Augustino Semenzio write, asking Francesco to send the two musicians as he had
promised. Massimiliano himself added a postscript to the same effect.60 Francesco
agreed, but temporized. The two musicians arrived in Cremona by 26 November
and then accompanied the duke to Milan, where they remained until the end of
January. They were joined there by Enrico Tedesco (Ulrich Schubinger) a trom
bonist in Mantuan service.61 Isabella herself arrived on 13 January, in time for the
carnival season. The impression given by the Mantuan correspondence from
Milan, the principal documentation for the period, is one of continual dances and
banquets. These lasted far into the night. At one point Cesare Gonzaga, who had
accompanied Isabella to Milan, wrote back to Mantua:
59 Letter of Lorenzo Strozzi to Federico Gonzaga in Rome, 13 November 1512.
ASMN-G, busta 2485. Partially published in Alessandro Luzio and Rodolfo Renier,
"Buffoni, nani e schiavi dei Gonzaga ai tempi d'Isabella d'Est?," Nuova Antolog?a 118
(1891): 131, and in Luzio, "Isabella di fronte a Giulio H," 139-41.
60 ASMN-G, busta 1640. The documents concerning Cara's and Roberto's trip to
Milan are published in Prizer, Courtly Pastimes, Docs. 61-93.
61 Massimiliano requested the musician on 7 December 1512 (ASMN-G, busta
1616). Francesco replied that he would send him on 9 December. (Ibid., busta 2919, libro
224, fol. 27.)
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All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms32 M?SICA DISCIPLINA
Yesterday evening, Sunday, the [Spanish] Viceroy [Ramon de Cordoba]
came to visit Madame, and after a while the duke came as well; after a brief
time the viceroy left. The duke wanted to eat with Madame and sent for
supper. Afterwards he wanted to have a "festino," which lasted until almost
morning; I would have left except that a member of the court kept me
there_[Instead,] I found myself a corner and went to sleep.62
Cara himself wrote Francesco Gonzaga from Milan on 7 January that "the duke is
so delighted by music that we get no rest day or night."63 Cara may have been
slighdy exaggerating, at least in that he was probably not as busy during daylight
hours, since Massimiliano was sleeping by day and carousing by night, this in
spite of the devastation and lack of food in the duchy. On 25 January, Giacomo
Suardino, the Mantuan emissary to the Milanese court, wrote to his master in
Mantua:
Concerning the confusion in this state I would gladly write you, and particu
larly about the city and the duke's court, but I would have to fill a whole
quinternion of paper, and even that would not be enough. Nonetheless I
will tell you the most important [matters]. The whole state cries and weeps
because of the intolerable disorders and unfortunate damages the Spaniards
do and have done. In the whole territory there is no one who does not
lament and who is not unhappy; and they say publicly that they would
rather let the territory be sacked than pay a single coin. The people are
unhappy at the [duke's] negligence in administrative matters, so that noth
ing is accomplished. Few can obtain an audience, and the duke leads the
strangest life in the world. He gets up at one [P. M.], eats at four, dines at
62 "Heri di sera, che fu domenica, el Signor Vicer? venne a visitare la Excellentia di
Madama, et, stando cos? per un spatio, vene el Signor Duca ancora, et de li a un pochetto el
Signor Vicer? se partite. La Excellentia del Signor Duca mandette a tore la cena sua et volse
cenare cum Madama, et dopo cena volse si facesse un festino, qual duro sino a hore dodice,
et se io la scapo che non mi amala, me teniro uno paladino ? lo me ne andai a regiudere
in uno cantone a dormir?." Letter to Tolomeo Spagnolo, first secretary of Francesco
Gonzaga, 24 January 1513. ASMN-G, busta 1640.
63 "El Signor Duca ? tanto d?dite e inclinato a la musicha che mai non havemo riposa
n? di n? nocte." ASMN-G, busta 1640.
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All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/termsSECULAR MUSIC AT MILAN 33
midnight, and then for the time that he is up, he remains unavailable and
does nothing [to govern].64
Suardino had already written on 9 January that Massimiliano "since he entered
Milan has not left the court [i. e., the Castello Sforzesco] except for the one time
he went to the ceremonial Mass in the cathedral."65 He must have gone out even
tually, however, since one of his favorite courtiers presented a comedy in his own
house for the court. Isabella reports this, saying that the presentation was "in versi
de rime strucioli" and describes the content of the comedy as "praising His Holi
ness and the Holy League for having reinstituted this state to whom it legitimately
belongs, having cast the king of France out of Italy, for which reason we can now
live peacefully, [and] exhorting the Milanesi to remain faithful to their lord.
Toward this same point, there were several [pieces of] music."66
64 "De la < confusione> de questo stato, volentera ne scriveria, e massime de questa
terra, poi de la corte del < duca>, ma seria bisogno enpirne uno quinterno de carta, n?
basteria; tutta volta de le pi? importante ne serra Vostra Signoria advisata. Tutto el stato
universalmente per li insuportabili disorndini e spese sachi mesti che fano et aria facto spag
noli, piange et crida et [in] questa terra non si sente una sol' persona che non se < dogJia>
e non se ritrova < mal contenta>, et publicamente dichano che inprima se lasserano met
iere < a sacho> ch'a pagare uno < dinaro>. Se doleno de questi < mali> governi, che
niuno cosa se < expedisce> ; pochi ponno av?re < audiencia>, ac el < duca> fa la pi?
strania vita del mondo: si < leva> a ore desnove, < manza> a 22, < cena> a sei, e poi,
quasi quel tempo che'l sta < levato>, sta rencluso e non fa niente." ASMN-G, busta
1640. The letter is partially written in cipher, which the Mantuan chancery usually
resolved. These portions are placed in angle brackets here. In Italy, from the fourteenth
century to until after the French Revolution, hours of the day were reckoned on a twenty
four-hour schedule beginning one-half hour after sunset and continuing to twenty-four
hours, the last hour of daylight. I have tried to interpret these hours according to the
approximate time of sunset for the season of the year. They are therefore only a rough
equivalent, though the basic point remains valid: Massimiliano was sleeping by day and
awake by night. See Gerhard Dohrn-van Rossum, History of the Hour: Clocks and
Modern Temporal Orders, trans. Thomas Dunlap (Chicago and London: The University
Chicago of Press, 1996), 108-114.
65 "N? dapoi ch'? entrato in Milano, non ? ussito fora de corte, salvo una volta che fu
in Domo a messa grandissima." ASMN-G, busta 1640.
66 "Heri... fo recitata la comedia in versi de rime strucioli, quale duro per spacio de
due hore. Lo effetto suo fo in laudare la Santit? di Nostro Signore et la serenissima lega in
havere restituito questo stato a cui il perviene legitamente, expulso il Re di Franza da
l'Italia, per il che potrassi mo' vivere in tranquilit?, confortando li Milanesi ad essere f ideli al
signore suo. Ad questo proposito medemo vi forono alcune musice." Letter of 26 January
1513. ASMN-G, busta 2120.
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